After all the hiking and jaw dropping scenery in the Albanian Alps, the last couple of days have seemed kind of sedate. I left Shkoder early on a bus bound for the capital city, Tirana. The bus pulled in and the bus right next to us was leaving for my destination in ten minutes. I don’t think my feet even had a chance to touch the pavement in Tirana it was so fast. Anyway, I’m now in the port town…
I said goodbye to Macedonia early and hopped on a bus for one of the only fully open countries on earth, Albania. My bus took me as far as the capital, Tirana, then I immediately jumped on another bus to Shkoder. Tirana is where I’ll end my adventure, so we’ll get to that later. Shkoder is a really pleasant city in the northwest of the country and the jumping off point for one of the premier outdoor excursions in the…
My drive from Bitola to Ohrid, my last stop in Macedonia, took me along the shores of two of Europe’s biggest lakes and over a beautiful mountain ridge through another of Macedonia’s national parks. I first made my way around pretty Lake Prespa where I had intended to catch a boat to Golem Grad, an island in the lake with some Roman ruins on it. Unfortunately, they told me the weather was too windy for the boats and it was…
There was really only one reason why I came to Bitola and that was to see Heraclea Lyncestis, the ancient city founded by the Macedon king Philip II. It just happens to be on the outskirts of Bitola, so that’s why I stayed the night. When I said in an earlier post that Stobi was the only archeology site mentioned in the guidebooks, I forgot about this place, there are two. Heraclea Lyncestis is a pretty small site, but holy…
I left Skopje for Mavrovo National Park on the western edge of Macedonia, but first I took a little detour to the ancient city of Stobi. Stobi is the only ruins I’ve visited in this country so far that is actually mentioned in the guidebooks and actually requires a ticket. It looks like they’re still excavating the site because there were people there working and photographing everything. The other fun part about visiting a site with some actual infrastructure is…
Well, another anxious border crossing turned out to be no big deal. All I needed was my passport, no test results were asked for. I got stamped out of Kosovo and then into North Macedonia and thirty minutes later I arrived in Skopje. Done and done! Aside from knowing there was an ancient kingdom named Macedonia, I really knew nothing about this country, but they have quite a history! The heyday was in the fourth century BC with king Philip…
Way down south in Kosovo is beautiful Prizren. I had originally planned to spend more time here using it as a base for day trips, but it turned out to be much easier venturing out from Peja, so I decided instead to just spend a full day exploring the city. I still didn’t want to miss seeing Prizrens famous fortress or it’s historic old town. After the short bus ride from Peja, I checked into my hostel right in the…
Just a quick one hour bus ride from Prishtina and I find myself in Peja at the mouth of Rugova Valley. Thanks to a rapidly developing outdoor adventure industry, Peja is rapidly becoming Kosovo’s outdoor adventure capital. It also has a couple of very important Serbian monasteries nearby. After checking into my hostel, I had just enough time to visit the Patriarchate of Pec (the Serbian word for Peja), and then explore downtown. Just walking from the bus station to…
Greetings and salutations from planet earth’s newest country, Kosovo. As it turned out, my stress about this border crossing was unwarranted. Back in Nis, I turned in my rental car at noon and then was looking forward to finding a place to keep cool in the 100 degree temps because my bus didn’t leave until 6pm. But, the owner of the hotel I stayed at said he didn’t have any reservations for that night and I could use the room…
Greetings from the southeastern corner of Serbia! Nis is Serbia’s third largest city and is the birthplace of three Roman emperors, the most famous of which is Constantine the Great. In fact, the ruins of his 4th century palace are just at the east end of town. The site is completely closed to tourists, but there it is. For me, Nis is my final stop in Serbia and a good base for more exploration. It’s also considerably less hectic than…